After you leave your doctor's office, many questions will occur to you. Oncologists encourage you to write your questions down and bring them with you on your next visit, or if questions are more urgent, to phone the office.
Ignorance, confusion and unspoken fears can isolate people from one another. In a situation filled with anxiety, the isolation can be especially severe and painful. When family and friends share information about treatment plans, medications and side effects, cancer becomes more understandable and bearable for everyone concerned.
Getting More Information Besides the discussion and the audio tapes, your doctor may provide you with information in the form of handouts, pamphlets or recommended reading. These are available free from your local branch of the Canadian Cancer Society and many support organizations.
Pamphlets and books have their place in giving you both general and detailed information about your cancer and its treatment, but videotapes can accelerate the learning process. Videotapes may be especially important in the period just after your diagnosis because the emotional adjustment you have to make to having cancer can interfere with the concentration necessary for reading. A decrease in attention span and comprehension—a kind of emotional or mental paralysis, really—is not unusual. So videotapes to explain CT scans, radiation therapy , good nutrition, exercise or any other aspects of cancer and cancer therapy can be very helpful.
